Valley of Kings reveals new secrets

Finding of first tomb since 1922 shows there may be more to unearth

LEE KEATH, Associated Press

Published 6:30 am, Friday, February 10, 2006

CAIRO, EGYPT - The first tomb to be discovered in the Valley of the Kings since King Tut's in 1922 contains five sarcophagi with mummies, breaking the nearly centurylong belief that there's nothing more to find in the valley where some of Egypt's greatest pharaohs were buried.

The tomb's spare appearance suggests it was not dug for a pharaoh, said U.S. archaeologist Kent Weeks, who was not involved in the University of Memphis team's find but has seen photos of the site. "It could be the tomb of a king's wife or son, or of a priest or court official," he said.

So far, authorities haven't had a close enough look to know who is in the tomb. Workers have been clearing rubble to allow archaeologists a closer look.

Egypt's antiquities authority has said only that the single-chamber tomb contains five wooden sarcophagi, in human shapes with colored funerary masks, surrounded by 20 jars with their pharaonic seals intact — and that the sarcophagi contain mummies, likely from the 18th Dynasty, some 3,300-3,500 years ago.

Further details were expected today, when antiquities chief Zahi Hawass is to unveil the tomb.

Officials were tight-lipped Thursday, a day after announcing the find. American archaeologist Otto Schaden, who headed the team that uncovered the site, declined to answer questions.

Schaden's team uncovered shafts leading to the tomb — about 15 feet from Tut's tomb — during "routine digs."

The tomb may provide less drama than the opening of King Tut's tomb in 1922 by archaeologist Howard Carter, a discovery which revealed a trove of gold artifacts along with the boy king's mummy.

But it raises hopes that even more burial sites will be found in the Valley of the Kings, which experts believed held only 62 tombs.